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Structure Design’s client, KiwiRail, was recently awarded the 2018 Restoration Award by the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand for the restoration of the former Newmarket Railway Station at a new site in Parnell.

Designed by renowned railway architect, George Troup, and built in 1908, Newmarket Railway Station was one of five historic stations on the Auckland commuter network. Auckland Transport wanted to relocate the building to Parnell for use as a station in order to preserve it, a process that began in 2008 when it was cut in half and transported to an off-site location for storage.

In 2014, Dave Pearson Architects prepared a restoration design. Structure Design were engaged to design the station building foundations and coordinate with the station platforms, designed by Structure Design under a separate contract with Auckland Transport. Structure Design’s role involved:

Inspecting the building at an off-site location to assess its general condition and to coordinate the design of foundations.

Carrying out an Initial Seismic Assessment for the building to verify it is not Earthquake Prone.

Providing structural advice to enable the building structure to be reinstated as near as practicable to its original state.

Designing new foundations to provide support for the station building as an interim step, while making provisions for an extension of the foundations to support the surrounding access-ways.

Designing new sub-floor framing for the building, ensuring coordination with the architectural details and obtaining constructability input from the contractor.

Benefits of having us on the team:

We helped to preserve the station building’s heritage value.

We were a key link between KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and their individual consultant teams, which enabled a coordinated end result.

Congratulations to KiwiRail and to all project team members for this award.